Hot air: Minister says no more onshore wind farms - but thousands are already in the pipeline

Wind farms: Greg Barker hinted that the growth of onshore developments could be halted

Ministers have ruled out a fresh expansion of wind farms – but will not reverse plans for the thousands of turbines already in the pipeline.

Climate Change Minister Greg Barker said there had been an ‘unbalanced’ approach to the controversial turbines and vowed there would be no significant expansion of farms.

Under former Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne, around 10,000 onshore turbines were planned in order to meet EU targets, with thousands more planned offshore.

There are already 3,100 turbines across Britain which cost taxpayers up to £700million a year in subsidies. Mr Barker, a Tory minister, said yesterday that the Government was now looking at other options and played down the prospects of the full number of wind turbines planned under Mr Huhne being built.

He said: ‘Far from wanting thousands more, actually for most of the wind we need... they are either built, being developed or in planning. It’s about being balanced and sensible. We inherited a policy from the last government which was unbalanced in favour of onshore wind.’

'Blight on the countryside: A wind far at the village of Bothel in the Lake District

But a source close to the Department
for Energy and Climate Change said there was ‘no U-turn on wind farms’,
adding: ‘This is not a change in policy.’

However, a Government source said that
Tories were celebrating Mr Huhne’s departure and that there had been a
‘recalibration’ of the policy, adding: ‘Chris Huhne was too much of a
zealot about wind power. Thankfully Ed Davey is far more reasonable.’

Earlier this year more than 100 Tory
MPs wrote to the Prime Minister in protest when plans were unveiled for
an expansion of wind farms.

Offshore: Although the growth of wind farms could be halted, they are likely to still be constructed off the coast